Modern day drumsticks are most commonly made of wood. The most popular type of wood is hickory, because it is both hard and strong. Other woods commonly used for drumsticks include oak, maple, walnut and bamboo. An example of a typical present day drumstick is depicted in FIG. 1.
When a drummer plays using drumsticks, he or she does not typically hold the drum stick firmly. Instead, the drumstick is held somewhat loosely between fingers, allowing the stick to rebound off of percussive surfaces when struck. Because of this loose grip on the drumstick, any tendency for the stick to resonate after striking a surface is not damped by a drummer's hand. Instead, the drumstick is free to vibrate just as it would unsuspended, in open air.
Drumstick vibration and resonance is particularly apparent when the drumstick strikes a very hard surface, such as a cymbal or a drum rim. This is because wood materials commonly used for drumsticks have a very high quality factor of resonance, or “Q factor,” which causes a drumstick to continue to vibrate after it strikes a hard surface. If the drumstick is constantly vibrating in the drummer's hands, or even periodically vibrating, this may cause fatigue while playing. Indeed, some drummers report tingling in the hands and fingers during and after drumming. In extreme cases, the resonant vibrations occurring in a drumstick could lead to tendonitis and/or other undesirable problems. Nevertheless, it is the drummer's intention to strike the surface of a drum or cymbal to produce sound from the drum or cymbal, while it is not the drummer's intention to excite resonances in the drumstick. Therefore, the tendency for a drumstick to vibrate after striking a surface is undesirable.
Several techniques have been employed in the art over the years to combat the problem of drumstick vibration and associated fatigue. These techniques, however, have yielded less than desirable results. For example, several drumsticks have been developed having a shape that differs from the classic tapered design. An example of one such drumstick is shown in FIG. 2. Other vibration-reducing techniques include placing a rubber ring around the butt-end of a drumstick, as described in US Patent publication 20060107818, or placing a rubber insert into the butt-end of a drumstick, as can be found with Zildjian®'s “Anti-Vibe” drumsticks.
Another technique for reducing resonant vibrations includes forming the drumstick out of a material other than wood. Some alternative drumstick materials include nylon and carbon fiber, although the most common carbon fiber drumsticks consist of chopped carbon fiber in a nylon matrix. Nylon drumsticks, however, typically have very low stiffness. Thus, while the resonant frequencies are lower than a typical wooden drumstick, nylon drumsticks are also unpleasantly flexible. Drummers typically appreciate the feel of wooden sticks, so nylon is not necessarily a good alternative. Carbon fiber sticks have a similar weight and feel when compared to wooden sticks, but undesirable resonance vibration still occurs. Thus, carbon fiber sticks do not appear to be a complete solution to reducing undesirable resonant vibrations.
Therefore, there remains a need in the art for a technique, device, and/or method for largely or completely eliminating resonance vibrations that occur when a drumstick or other impact tool strikes a surface.